by Jean Plaidy
Day after day the frost continued and a few days before that fixed for the christening Albert declared that the lake was hard enough for skating.
Victoria wanted to join him but he begged her not to. ‘I should be overcome by anxiety. It is too soon after Pussy’s birth,’ said Albert.
Because he begged and did not command, Victoria was happy to fall in with his wishes and touched, she said, by his care of her. So each day she and her ladies would go out into the grounds of Buckingham Palace to watch the skaters, and the Queen was delighted with the figure Albert cut on the ice. He was an expert.
The palace garden with its forty acres was a consolation to Albert for having to live in London. The lake was delightful and there was a pleasant summer-house situated on a mound for which he had plans. He was one day going to have it decorated and made into a refuge from the great palace which, though so close, was invisible during summer when the trees were thick with leaves.
On the day before the christening it seemed a little warmer. The Queen commented on it to the Duchess of Sutherland and some of the other ladies as they made their way to the lake where the Prince was already skating. He liked her to watch him.
As she came near to the lake she saw Albert. He waved to her. She waved back.
‘How beautifully he moves!’ she murmured.
As Albert skated towards her there was a sudden sound of cracking ice and the Prince, throwing up his hands, disappeared. Where he had been was a big hole of dark water.
The ladies started to scream. One of them ran to the palace to get help. But Victoria could only think that Albert had disappeared beneath the ice.
She ran to the lake. ‘Albert!’ she cried desperately.
His head appeared.
‘Albert, I’m coming,’ she said, though she was not quite sure what she could do.
‘Go back!’ called Albert. ‘It’s dangerous.’
But she took no notice. Cautiously she ventured on to the ice, testing it with her foot before taking a step forward. She held out her hands to him.
Albert by this time was scrambling out. ‘My dearest,’ he panted, ‘keep away.’
But she had seized his arm and was pulling him out of the water.
The ice seemed firm where Victoria stood and later she heard that it had been broken just where Albert had fallen in and had lightly frozen over again, which was why it was so weak at that particular spot.
Clinging together they reached the bank.
‘My brave love!’ said Albert. ‘You might have joined me beneath the ice …’
‘You are shivering,’ said Victoria sternly. ‘I must get you into the palace at once.’
The christening was a great success. Pussy behaved very well and did not cry as the Queen had feared she might. She appeared to be fascinated by the lights and the uniforms and everyone commented on her intelligence.
The old Duke of Wellington stood proxy for the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as one of the sponsors; Leopold was another. Queen Adelaide with the Duke of Sussex and the Duchesses of Kent and Gloucester made up the rest.
After the ceremony, which took place in Buckingham Palace, at six p.m. there was a dinner-party over which the Queen presided.
Beside her was her dear Lord Melbourne and she told him that she was reminded of the old days when he dined almost every evening at the palace and indeed had an apartment there.
She noticed that tears filled his eyes and she was deeply touched.
‘You will always be my dear friend,’ she said warmly, ‘and none of your other friends will be as fond of you as I am.’
‘Your Majesty once told me that before. I have never forgotten, nor shall I ever.’
‘Dear Lord M.’ She touched his hand briefly and then, because it was such an emotional moment, she changed the subject by asking what he had thought of the ceremony.
‘It went off perfectly,’ said Lord Melbourne, ‘and I could not help but be impressed by the chief performer.’
‘You mean?’
‘The Princess Royal. She looked about her, conscious that all the stir was for her. This is the time that character is formed.’
The Queen laughed aloud and repeated Lord Melbourne’s remark to the rest of the company.
She remembered how in the old days a dinner-party was always gay and amusing when Lord Melbourne was present, and rather dull when he wasn’t. It was different now of course that there was Albert.
Albert was sneezing violently.
‘Oh, dear,’ said the Queen, ‘I hope your ducking is not going to make you ill.’
‘It’s only a cold,’ replied the Prince. He looked at her fondly. ‘I shall never forget how promptly you saved me.’
‘I didn’t save you. You saved yourself.’
‘You showed great presence of mind. Different from your attendants. I was proud of you.’
‘Oh, Albert, I can’t describe my terror when I saw you disappear.’
‘My love, there was no real danger. The lake is not deep and in fact the ice was quite firm except at that one small spot.’
‘I thought of so many things in the space of those few moments,’ she said. ‘I thought of them carrying you into the palace … dead, and I knew then that if that had been so I should want to die too.’
Albert kissed her tenderly.
‘My dear love, we are happy are we not?’
‘Completely, Albert.’
‘We must try always to keep it as it was during that moment when I disappeared and you came out on the ice to rescue me.’
‘We will, Albert,’ she cried fervently. ‘We will.’
All Albert suffered from the skating incident was a severe cold. Victoria insisted on making sure that he did everything to rid himself of it. Having suffered that moment of intense fear when she had thought of losing him she realised how much she loved him.
She was blissfully happy for a few weeks. Then she made a discovery.
She was once more pregnant.
‘It can’t be,’ she moaned. ‘It is much too soon.’
Albert was delighted, but inwardly she was resentful. As she had remarked to Uncle Leopold, men seldom understood what child-bearing meant, that terrible ordeal being quite beyond their comprehension.
Lehzen grumbled that it was far too soon. Victoria should have had a year in which to recover from Pussy’s birth, she said, implying that Albert had been inconsiderate in forcing this new pregnancy upon her. Even the Duchess of Kent expressed the desire that there should have been a longer interval, although there was not a hint of criticism of Albert from her.
Victoria was even more difficult than she had been during the first months of Pussy’s gestation. She began finding fault with everyone and her ladies were beginning to dread approaching her. The famous temper flared up at the slightest provocation, and the atmosphere was quite different from that which had prevailed at Windsor during Christmas.
She was anxious too about the government. Trade was bad and the finances of the country were weak. When Lord Melbourne came to see her he was quite clearly uneasy and she felt that he tried to keep this from her. She could guess what it meant. The Opposition was being difficult again and the idea of losing her Prime Minister with the ordeal of childbirth looming ahead of her angered her.
Her pretty pink and white complexion faded during those months; she looked pale, even sallow. Her nose looked longer, her eyes less blue and her mouth sullen. I’m quite plain, she thought, and Albert is beautiful.
She noticed then how pretty some of her ladies were. How foolish she had been to choose them because she liked the look of them. If she did, other people might – people like Albert, for instance.
Albert had always disliked the society of women and she had at times been a little critical of his awkwardness with them, but she fancied that this was changing.
She had heard him chattering away with Miss Spring-Rice in German. That very pretty young lady spoke the language quite well and gave herself airs becaus
e the Prince naturally liked to talk in his native tongue.
‘I trust you enjoyed your conversations with the young lady,’ said the Queen after she had listened to them as she said ‘going on and on’.
‘It was very interesting,’ replied the Prince. ‘Her accent is not at all bad. She has an amusing way with her verbs which I have to correct.’
‘And there is something I have to correct. I don’t care to hear you giggling with that silly frivolous creature.’
‘We talked in German,’ said the Prince. ‘I do not think that could be described as giggling.’
‘I describe what you were doing as such,’ said the Queen haughtily and left him. In her room she looked into her mirror.
‘I was never pretty,’ she said, ‘but being pregnant has certainly not improved my looks.’
Lehzen said that when a woman was going to have a child nature did something to her, put an aura around her, gave her special attractions.
‘Don’t talk nonsense,’ snapped the Queen. ‘Where is this aura? Show it to me.’
‘It is something you can’t point to.’
‘No, it is something to pacify me. It doesn’t exist. Sometimes, Lehzen, I think you imagine I am a child in the nursery. This is no longer so, and please remember it. I will not be treated as though I’m a querulous child.’
Lehzen looked so sad that Victoria cried: ‘Oh, Lehzen, I’m sorry. I’ve become terrible lately. And what’s worse I quarrel all the time with Albert.’
‘Well, as he’s responsible for your condition, he must understand.’
‘He does. He is an angel.’
She must try to be reasonable; she must make Albert see that it was this violent temper of hers and the fact that she was so soon to have another baby which was affecting her.
She was charming to Albert for a few days and he, the dear good angel, behaved as though nothing unusual had happened, and then she began to be jealous because he seemed to enjoy the company of Miss Devereux who was really very beautiful and dignified and rather like Albert in temperament.
‘It’s the first few months that are the worst in a pregnancy,’ comforted Lehzen. ‘After that you’ll settle down and become quite serene as you did last time.’
‘You can all take it very calmly,’ retorted Victoria. ‘You don’t have to go through it all. You’re like Uncle Leopold.’
‘My precious love!’ cried Lehzen aghast. ‘You must know that I suffer all the time … with you.’
Victoria threw her arms about the Baroness and said she was a beast. She did not deserve her dearest Daisy nor that dearest and kindest of husbands. And she felt better comforting Lehzen.
But she was soon irritable again.
She came upon Albert talking to Miss Pitt, one of the prettiest of her maids of honour – a rather reserved young lady with whom Albert had often had a friendly word.
Miss Pitt was carrying a very beautiful bouquet of flowers and the Prince, who was passionately interested in horticulture, had paused to admire it.
‘The spring flowers are perhaps the most beautiful,’ he was saying, and Miss Pitt was agreeing with him. Miss Pitt was holding the flowers out to him to smell when the Queen came in.
Victoria’s expression was stormy, and Albert, noticing this, tried to soothe her.
‘Look at these beautiful flowers, my love,’ he said, smiling. ‘I think we should grow more flowers in the gardens.’
The Queen took the flowers and looked at them distastefully.
‘They are yours, Miss Pitt?’ she enquired.
‘Yes, Your Majesty. I was passing through when His Highness stopped to admire them.’
To admire them, thought the Queen looking at Miss Pitt, whose prettiness was enhanced by her blushing.
‘Well, leave them with me,’ said the Queen with a nod, and Miss Pitt, interpreting this correctly as dismissal, curtsied and retired.
The Queen’s angry eyes met those of Albert over the flowers. Then deliberately she tore the bouquet to pieces, scattering the flowers all over the floor, and went to the door.
At it she paused. ‘There. Now you may gather them up and take them to Miss Pitt. It will give you a chance to see her again and tell her how much you admire her flowers … and her.’
Albert merely looked at her sadly and she ran to her room, threw herself on to her bed and burst into tears.
Albert asked Lord Melbourne to call on him and when the Prime Minister arrived, he told him that the Queen was unaware of this meeting.
‘I am seriously concerned,’ said the Prince, ‘and I feel that owing to your friendship with the Queen and your affection for her, you are the one best to advise me how to act.’
Lord Melbourne, who had grown to respect the Prince, replied immediately that he was at his service. He understood. Baron Stockmar, the Prince’s chief adviser, was out of England at the time, and it pleased the Prime Minister that the Prince should turn to him.
‘I am very anxious about the Queen,’ went on Albert.
Lord Melbourne nodded gravely.
‘Her present mood will pass, I know,’ said the Prince. ‘It is entirely due to her condition and, although this year it is more exaggerated than last, it springs from the same source.’
‘I know Your Highness is capable of exercising great patience and realises the absolute necessity to do so.’
‘That is true,’ replied Albert gravely. ‘I am thinking of the inevitable change of government.’
Lord Melbourne nodded gravely. ‘It can’t be delayed much longer. In fact, but for the Queen’s action, we should have been out two years ago.’
‘That is my point,’ said Albert. ‘There must not be another bedchamber incident. I believe that if the Queen were to behave once more as she did on that occasion the Crown would be in danger.’
Lord Melbourne looked grave. ‘It should certainly be prevented.’
‘It must be prevented.’
‘You have surely not spoken to the Queen of this matter?’
‘It is impossible to speak to the Queen. She flies into a temper it often seems without reason. To mention such a matter to her now would have disastrous consequences, I fear.’
‘Then what do you propose?’
‘That this must be settled without the Queen.’
‘You cannot mean that her bedchamber ladies can be dismissed without her knowledge.’
‘Sir Robert Peel will find himself in a similar position to that which confronted him two years ago. What if there is an election and your Ministry is defeated?’
‘It is almost a foregone conclusion that it will be,’ Lord Melbourne said wryly. ‘The Queen would, of course, be obliged to accept a government which had been elected by the people.’
‘And if she refused to change her household and if Sir Robert Peel refused to take office until she did?’
‘The Queen would be obliged to obey the Constitution. She would have to give way.’
‘What a humiliation for her! I want to spare her that.’
‘I would wish that, too.’
It was true, thought Albert, that Lord Melbourne saw the danger and wished to spare the Queen; but Lord Melbourne’s way was always to let things go and hope that they would work out all right. That was not Albert’s way.
‘Lord Melbourne,’ said Albert earnestly, ‘how long can your Ministry continue in office?’
‘We shall certainly be out before the end of this year. Long before the end of it, I think.’
‘And there will be an election?’
‘It seems inevitable.’
‘And Peel’s party will be returned?’
‘I fear so.’
The Prince believed so too, though he did not fear it. He believed Sir Robert Peel would make a better Prime Minister than Lord Melbourne.
‘My plan is,’ said Albert, ‘that before there is a Tory Government the chief Whig ladies of the Queen’s bedchamber shall already have tendered their resignations. Then the Queen will be spared the
humiliation of having to bow to Sir Robert’s wishes.’
‘But how will you bring about these resignations?’
‘Would you have any objection to my consulting Sir Robert Peel on this matter?’
‘I would have none and indeed am entitled to have none. I believe Sir Robert will welcome your suggestions.’
‘Then I will see what can be done.’
‘All this is to be secret from Her Majesty?’
‘Absolutely. It would be quite impossible while she is in her present mood to discuss it with her. You think I am foolish to attempt this.’
‘I think you are very brave,’ replied Lord Melbourne.
The Prince discussed the matter with his secretary Mr Anson, who, discreet and astute, grasped the situation immediately and agreed with the Prince that there was only one way of dealing with it and that was as the Prince proposed.
If Peel came into power the bedchamber ladies would have to be changed, and as the Queen would have to bow to this it would be a humiliation for her and a triumph for Sir Robert.
‘We must remember,’ said Mr Anson, ‘that Sir Robert was deeply humiliated by the Queen two years ago and if he were a ruthless and vindictive man he might insist on retaliation.’
‘I do not believe Sir Robert Peel to be that kind of man,’ said the Prince, ‘and I want to do everything in my power to save the Queen from humiliation.’
‘And Your Highness would wish me to approach Sir Robert on your behalf, and sound him as to his course of action should he become Prime Minister.’
‘That is what I wish,’ said the Prince.
‘Then shall we decide exactly what I shall say to Sir Robert?’
The Prince bowed his head. There was no doubt that like Lord Melbourne, Mr Anson considered the Prince to be a very brave man to risk rousing the Queen’s anger which, over such a matter which she would consider an interference with her personal concerns, could be more fierce than it had ever been before.